Included Studies
These nine studies20-28 were published between 1998
and 2017. A summary of the characteristics of the included studies is
shown in Table 1. Three were done in Turkey22,26,28and one in each of the following countries: Canada20,
US23, Saudi Arabia25,
Venezuela27, Brazil21, and
Bangladesh24. All of the studies were of
parallel-group design, eight trials20-26,28 were
double-blinded, and one was a simple blinded trial27.
Six studies were performed in the ED20,22,23,25,27,28and three in hospitalized children21,24,26. Two
studies20,27 were performed in the ED but also had
some information for admitted patients, and one27 of
those studies had a three-intervention-group design, but we included
only information for our comparison criteria (ICS + SC vs. SC). One
study25 allowed the inclusion of patients previously
included in the study. All the studies included an asthma
clinical severity score, but the score varied between studies (Table 1).
Four studies20,23,25,28 reported funding information,
and all of them were independently sponsored (not by the pharmaceutical
industry). All except two studies21,22 had high
methodological quality (Figure 2).